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Mexican Empire
The Mexican Empire was a short-lived incarnation of the United States of Mexico, lasting from 2 April to 16 October 1901. Following Mexico's astonishing victories against the Russian Empire in the Great Northern War, Chief of State Benito Hermión began to have fantasies of world domination, and saw himself becoming "the second Alexander". By 1901, the U.S.M., together with its dependent nations of Guatemala, New Granada, Hawaii, Alaska, and Siberia, was the second largest power in the world, behind only the weak and divided Chinese Empire. Although the Mexican economy lagged behind those of the Confederation of North America, Great Britain, and the Germanic Confederation, its army and navy were the most powerful in the world. At the time he proclaimed himself Emperor of Mexico, Hermión was sixty years old, in good health, and full of vigor. He had tripled the land area controlled by the U.S.M. over the course of twenty years of rule, and made it the paramount power in Latin America. His military forces in Siberia continued to advance against the disintegrating Russian Empire, and he may have had dreams of bringing the whole Tsarist realm under his control. His son Frederick Hermión, now known as Prince Frederick, was thirty-three years old and even more ambitious. Privately, Hermión predicted that his dynasty would one day "rule not only continents, but the great globe itself." Diego Cortez y Catalán, the President of Kramer Associates and Hermión's most important supporter, did not share his imperial ambitions. In a Novermber 1899 meeting with Hermión, Cortez had warned him to withdraw from Siberia. "Unless we can extract ourselves with honor and dignity, we will either be expelled by the European powers or sink into the icy morass of a useless land." When the Russian Revolution broke out in February 1900, Cortez became convinced that it would be necessary to remove Hermión from power. Hermión's imperial proclamation of 2 April 1901 caused Cortez to advance his timetable. On 1 August 1901, Cortez held a meeting in his Sacramento hacienda with fifteen leaders of the anti-Hermión opposition, including former Mexico City Times editor Pedro Sanchez, former Senators Edward Van Gelder and Richard Polk, and Moralista leader Carlos Lincoln. Sanchez suggested a surprise coup d'etat followed by a public trial. Van Gelder believed that Hermión was too popular to face trial, and called for his assassination. Polk wanted Hermión to be captured and exiled. Lincoln refused to go along with any attempt to remove Hermión if Cortez meant to take his place. In response, Cortez denied any desire for political power, and promised that neither he nor anyone else connected with K.A. would be part of a post-Hermión government. He called for a return to Constitutional rule, and stated his opposition to any attempt to assassinate Hermión, fearing that this would make Hermión a martyr like his father. Cortez then revealed that he had already devised a plan for removing Hermión from power, and that the others were there to oversee the return to democratic government. Cortez put his plan into operation on the night of 15-16 October 1901, when Hermión was hosting a diplomatic reception for German Ambassador Heinz von Kron. On the evening of the 15th, 2000 Kramer guards entered Mexico City disguised as laborers and surrounded the Imperial Palace. Early the following morning, a force of forty-nine men entered the palace, overpowering the police, opening the gates to the rest of the Kramer guards, and cutting off communications from outside. When Hermión woke on the morning of 16 October, he found his palace surrounded by what he thought were Moralista insurgents. Guard Commandant Martin Cole announced that the compound was in his hands, adding, "We will harm no one who is innocent. All we want is El Jefe. Servants and others may leave in peace, and must do so within the next fifteen minutes." Hermión dressed himself in a butler's uniform, shaved his beard and mustache, and joined the servants as they made their way through Cole's men and out into the city. Cortez had Hermión tracked by 300 Kramer agents as he fled across Durango to the port of Tampico and boarded an Argentinian oil tanker bound for Spain on 28 November. Less than an hour after Hermión fled the Palace, Cole entered to take his place. Surrounded by his men, Cole announced that he would head a provisional government until elections were held. Cole was under the direct authority of Cortez, and all of his actions were directed from K.A. headquarters in San Francisco. On 15 November Cole announced full amnesty for all those who had been exiled by Hermión, and promised the Moralistas "a role in the new Mexico if they want one." National elections were held on 14 June 1902, and after a runoff election for the presidency, former Senator Anthony Flores was sworn in as President under the restored Constitution. ---- Sobel's sources for the Mexican Empire are Van Gelder's The Victory of Republicanism (Mexico City, 1912); Bernardo Silvera's The Private Thoughts of Benito Hermión (New York, 1920); editor Jack Nathanson's From the Cortez Files (Mexico City, 1938) and More From the Cortez Files (Mexico City, 1947); Linda Carlista's The Heir: The Life of Benito Hermión (Mexico City, 1946); editor Frank Dana's Recent Discoveries in the Cortez Collection (New York, 1958); Raymond Vun Kannon's The Phoenix: Mexico's Rebirth (London, 1958); editor Miguel Señada's Cortez and Hermión: Bitter Friendship (Mexico City, 1968); and Stanley Tulin's The Kramer Associates: The Cortez Years (London, 1970). Category:Government of the U.S.M.